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The tour begins at the William Shakespeare Statue at 65th Street and Center Drive. This tour is best experienced on a mobile phone.
You should now be standing at Bethesda Terrace, overlooking Bethesda Fountain.
Bethesda Terrace is a notable icon of Central Park and features a large two-level plaza with an arcade. As one of the few formal landscapes in the Park, the Terrace offers a gathering space that features Bethesda Fountain. Bethesda Terrace was designed by Central Park co-designer Calvert Vaux with his assistant, Wrey Mould.
Vaux always maintained that nature was the focus of the design of Central Park. He once said, “Nature first, second, and third—architecture after a while.” The Terrace is a notable exception, but the details of the Terrace still pay homage to nature.
Take a minute to explore the intricate carvings on the ramps, balustrades, and piers of the Terrace, which Wrey Mould was responsible for. On the upper level of the terrace, piers feature scenes representing night and day. Grand staircases that lead to the lower level along with other piers feature carvings that depict the four seasons as represented through fruits, flowers, plants, and birds.
The lower level of Bethesda Terrace features 16,000 encaustic or inlaid tiles manufactured by the Mintol tile company in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It is the only ceiling in the world featuring these types of tiles, which are typically used as flooring.
And at the center of the Terrace is Bethesda Fountain, which Vaux called “the centre of the centre.” Measuring 26 feet high and 96 feet wide, it is one of the largest fountains in New York. It features a bronze Neoclassical statue known as the Angel of the Waters. The only sculpture to have been commissioned as part of the original design of Central Park, the 8-foot bronze angel stands above four cherubim which represent health, purity, temperance, and peace, all set within a two-tiered basin that is filled with aquatic plants in the summer. The angel carries a lily in one hand while the other is outstretched to bless the water pouring around her feet, which commemorates the opening of the Croton Aqueduct in 1842 to supply the city with fresh water.
The designer of the sculpture was Emma Stebbins, who became the first woman to receive a commission for a major sculpture in the city of New York. Initial reviews of the sculpture were mixed. When the sculpture was unveiled on June 1, 1873, The New York Times wrote, “All had expected something great, something of angelic power and beauty, and when a feebly-pretty idealess thing of bronze was revealed the revulsion of feeling was painful.” Today however, The Times describes the sculpture as, “all but synonymous with the city.
Bethesda Fountain has also been a celebrated filming location for television and film, including Annie Hall, Angels in America, One Fine Day, Home Alone 2, and Law & Order.
Tony Kushner, the award-winning American playwright who wrote Angels in America, said of the Bethesda Fountain, “The plaza, the setting and the angel herself — it feels like the center of New York City, and the center of the universe, in a way.”
Take a minute to sit and enjoy the beautiful fountain. Look around again at your fellow visitors. Choose someone and make up a story about who they are and why they are there. Imagine their life goals, their triumphs, and challenges. Take a break from your reality to create someone else’s. Have fun with it! If you are with someone else, jointly create the story.
Next, if The Mall is behind you and you’re facing the front of Stebbins’ bronze sculpture, follow the path to the left around Bethesda Fountain and exit the circle to the left, walking along the shore of the lake toward Bow Bridge.
When you reach the beginning of the bridge, select Bow Bridge from the pull-down menu on your tour screen.
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